I Am the Cheese

I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier (1977) I became intrigued with this book because I saw multiple copies in my local used bookstore—I mean more copies than any other book in the children's section. So I figured I'd just read it before looking up anything about it. What a total bummer this book is! Not to give anything away—but it seems like I am the only one who didn't know about it. It's odd, because it's considered a “young adult” book—and it came out when I was a young adult—and in high school, even, so you'd think it would have been something I'd have read. To be honest, I probably would have liked it much more then. In 2021 it feels unnecessarily bleak. I wonder if older adults have less patience for tragic stories—I mean, once you've experienced enough real tragedy. Still, though, I liked the mystery involved, and finding out little by little what was going on. And it's got an interesting structure—alternating between time periods (or seeming to)—even if that structure does get annoying, eventually. But ultimately I didn't care for the resolution—and the danger, the threat, felt like more of a fantasy than reality—which led me not to care. It felt a bit pointless. Also, I couldn't help feeling that this should have been a short story—and as a novel it was stretched a little thin.